A woman playing with puppets, and another dream where the strings on puppets led to the hands of larger puppets, and their strings led to still greater puppets, on and on until the last strings vanished into unimaginable heights.

Elayne is upset about all the destruction and wants to do something about it. This surprises Egwene who recalls a lesson from Bennae Sedai stating that Cairhien and Andor have had frequent wars. Egwene realizes that one of her dreams means that a Gray Man is after Mat. Suddenly, the Blue Crane runs aground on a mud flat. They debate staying on the ship or walking. The next village on the Andor side is fifteen miles but the next village on the Cairhien side, Jurene, is only six. It is held by Andoran soldiers so it is also safe. They are put ashore on the Cairhien side and begin walking. After walking a short while, an Aiel woman steps out of the bushes in front of them.11